U.s.: We`ll Meet Soviets Halfway

The White House, responding to remarks by Mikhail S. Gorbachev, said Tuesday that President Reagan was willing to meet the Soviet Union ``halfway in an effort to solve problems.``

Reagan is ``taking a serious approach to the relationship,`` the White House spokesman, Larry Speakes said.

At the same time, Speakes urged the Soviet Union to allow Reagan ``direct access`` to the Soviet people through a television speech as a means of improving ties between both nations.

Speakes said that the planned meeting in Geneva between Reagan and Gorbachev, on Nov. 19-20, offered a framework in which both leaders could conduct ``serious discussions`` on arms control, the Middle East, human rights and other issues.

Reagan is ``taking a serious approach to the relationship and has indicated that he is willing to meet the Soviet halfway in an effort to solve problems,`` Speakes said.

``The important thing is to get to this meeting, to have the two men look each other over, size each other up, lay out their views on these various topics and then be able to set an agenda to deal with these in the future,`` said Speakes.

The White House comments came in a restrained and low-keyed response to Gorbachev`s interview with Time magazine, made public Sunday, in which the Soviet leader said ties with the United States were worsening despite the approach of the summit meeting.

Gorbachev voiced ``disappointment and concern`` over what he termed American rejections of all Soviet initatives, and said the United States was waging a ``campaign of hatred`` against the Soviet Union.

Privately, there were indications that White House officials were annoyed at Gorbachev`s use of an American magazine to present his views to the United States and Western nations, while the Soviet Union fails to offer similar access to Reagan.

Speakes noted that on Jan. 25, Charles Z. Wick, the director of the United States Information Agency, sent a letter to Leonid Zamyatin, the Communist Party`s chief publicist, proposing an appearance by Reagan on Soviet television.

In the letter, Wick said that to ``further mutual understanding`` the Soviet Union should allow its television ``to carry an address by one of our top leaders which would be reciprocated on American television by one of your top leaders.``